Ask the Author: Fernanda Santos
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Fernanda Santos
I am a Phoenix-based staff writer for The New York Times. On June 30, 2013, when 19 firefighters died battling a wildfire in the central Arizona village of Yarnell, I jumped in my car and worked all night, filing the first of several stories I'd write for The Times from a darkened parking lot on the edge of a ghost town. I remember hearing coyotes howling in the distance and watching the fire burn on a mountain up above.
As I wrote about the fire and the firefighters, I became increasingly curious about the lives they lived and their final stance against a wave of flames that moved their way. These men – all of them members of the same crew, the Granite Mountain Hotshots – were together when they died, clustered in a hollow that measured no more than 30 feet by 20 feet. I wanted to know why none of them ran. I wanted to know why they did not break ranks – they were young, had wives and children at home or on the way, and so much to live for. I wanted to know about the culture of loyalty they built on and off the fire line.
Every question I had yielded other questions. Who were these 19 men? What are hotshots? How do wildfires burn? How did the fire in Yarnell burn? I'd say I developed a healthy obsession about this story. (My husband might disagree with the "healthy" part of this statement ...) And I knew that to satisfy my curiosity, to answer all the questions I had, I needed time and I needed room to let the story develop itself. That's when the story developed into a book.
As I wrote about the fire and the firefighters, I became increasingly curious about the lives they lived and their final stance against a wave of flames that moved their way. These men – all of them members of the same crew, the Granite Mountain Hotshots – were together when they died, clustered in a hollow that measured no more than 30 feet by 20 feet. I wanted to know why none of them ran. I wanted to know why they did not break ranks – they were young, had wives and children at home or on the way, and so much to live for. I wanted to know about the culture of loyalty they built on and off the fire line.
Every question I had yielded other questions. Who were these 19 men? What are hotshots? How do wildfires burn? How did the fire in Yarnell burn? I'd say I developed a healthy obsession about this story. (My husband might disagree with the "healthy" part of this statement ...) And I knew that to satisfy my curiosity, to answer all the questions I had, I needed time and I needed room to let the story develop itself. That's when the story developed into a book.
Fernanda Santos
I'm originally from Salvador, capital of the state of Bahia, in northeastern Brazil. Bahia is also the birthplace of one of my favorite authors, Jorge Amado, whose books unveiled the beauty in the hardened lives lived by the people of the Northeast, Brazil's poorest region. I remember reading "Captains of the Sands" in middle school, a book about a gang of street children who roamed the streets of my hometown. They were fictional characters, but so vividly described that I could never look at street children the same way.
Jorge Amado developed many strong women in his books. My favorite – she is also the most admired female character I've read – is Tereza Batista, a young woman forced to prostitute herself to survive. Tereza has many men in her life, most of them awful to her. But through the horrors she endured and the twisted morals of her twisted world, she nurtured a pure, sincere love for a married fisherman, Jereba, whose sick wife dies in time for him to rescue Tereza from a marriage of convenience, adding a measure of happiness to a tortured existence.
Tereza is the quintessential strong woman: She organized a strike among prostitutes to demand for better treatment against disease – and to demand respect. Jereba's strength is in forgiving Tereza for all her sins and in his resolve to reignite a romance interrupted by his loyalty to his ailing wife.
Jorge Amado developed many strong women in his books. My favorite – she is also the most admired female character I've read – is Tereza Batista, a young woman forced to prostitute herself to survive. Tereza has many men in her life, most of them awful to her. But through the horrors she endured and the twisted morals of her twisted world, she nurtured a pure, sincere love for a married fisherman, Jereba, whose sick wife dies in time for him to rescue Tereza from a marriage of convenience, adding a measure of happiness to a tortured existence.
Tereza is the quintessential strong woman: She organized a strike among prostitutes to demand for better treatment against disease – and to demand respect. Jereba's strength is in forgiving Tereza for all her sins and in his resolve to reignite a romance interrupted by his loyalty to his ailing wife.
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